Method of forming a jewelry chain and chain formed therefrom

ABSTRACT

A method of forming a decorative chain includes joining a first and second material in a layered relationship, each material having a different appearance, and forming such joined material into a spiral. A core is introduced into the spiral and then the core plus spiral are shaped into a desired configuration. Thereafter a portion of the first material along the outer surface is removed to reveal or expose a portion of the sub-layer of second material along the outer surface.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of forming a jewelry chaingenerally, and more particularly to a method of forming a reversible“Avolto” chain.

BACKGROUND

“Avolto” is traditionally understood as a jewelry style that uses a wireto form a chain into a round shape. Typically a strip of one color metalmade from a wire is rolled into a strip and this strip is wrapped on amandrel to make a spiral. An internal section made from cloth, metal orthe like is then introduced along a central axis of the spiral. Then, toobtain an “Avolto” product, a pressure operation is applied so thespiral wraps the cloth or central section and compacts one over another.This operation typically defines two sides of the same color which maybe equal or different in surface configuration but opposite relative toeach other. Then, to make a “reversible” Avolto, the traditional way isto “paint” one side using a galvanic process that plates another colormetal onto one side of the chain so that one side is formed from theoriginal metal and the other side is formed from the plated metal.

However, one disadvantage of the traditional “reversible” Avolto is thatthe integrity of the plating of the additional color can degrade overtime, whereby the plated material loses its color and/or adhesion to theoriginal chain material. Another disadvantage is that the galvanicprocess itself requires additional processing, energy and time, and isthereby more costly to produce. Accordingly, there is a need for abetter way to make a reversible Avolto without the stated disadvantages.

SUMMARY

A method of forming a decorative chain includes joining a first andsecond material in a layered relationship, each material having adifferent appearance, and forming such joined material into a spiral. Acore is introduced into the spiral and then the core plus spiral areshaped into a desired configuration. Thereafter a portion of the firstmaterial along the outer surface is removed to reveal or expose aportion of the sub-layer of second material along the outer surface. Inone embodiment, the first and second materials are different sheets ofmaterial that are joined in a soldering operation or the like to form ajoined strip of composite material, which joined strip is then wrappedaround a mandrel or support into a spiral.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the joining of two materials inaccordance with a method of forming a jewelry chain in accordance withthe present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates the two materials of FIG. 1 joined together.

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a processing of the joined materialof FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a resultant strip formed from theprocessing illustrated in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a cutting process used to obtainsmaller strips of material.

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of a formation of a spiral from theresultant strip of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates the introduction of a core within the spiral formedin FIG. 6.

FIG. 8A illustrates the core within the spiral of FIG. 7.

FIG. 8B is a cross-section of the spiral with core of FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9A illustrates a pressing or shaping operation applied to thespiral and core shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B.

FIGS. 9B-9E illustrate different shapes obtain through the pressing orshaping operation of FIG. 9A.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of the removal of a portion of theouter surface of a jewelry section to reveal the sub-layer of materialbelow the outer surface.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a jewelry chain formed inaccordance with the above.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of the detailed removal of a portionof the outer surface of a jewelry section to reveal the sub-layer ofmaterial below the outer surface.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of a method of forming a strip intochain links.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a method of forming the chainlinks of FIG. 14 into a string of chain of links.

FIG. 15 illustrates one embodiment of the removal of a portion of theouter surface of chain links on a string of chain links to form adecorated jewelry chain.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

This disclosure describes the best mode or modes of practicing theinvention as presently contemplated. This description is not intended tobe understood in a limiting sense, but provides an example of theinvention presented solely for illustrative purposes by reference to theaccompanying drawings to advise one of ordinary skill in the art of theadvantages and construction of the invention. In the various views ofthe drawings, like reference characters designate like or similar parts.

FIGS. 1-12 illustrate one embodiment of a method of forming a jewelrychain in accordance with the present invention. While the presentdiscussion refers to a jewelry “chain” per se, it will be understoodthat the chain could be a portion of a chain, a necklace, a loop usedfor earrings, a bracelet, a pin, pendant, etc. and the like. It willalso be understood that the jewelry chain could be a chain designed tobe worn by a user, or a spool of chain material typically used by awholesaler to create separate length chains. In addition, the method ofthe present invention could be used to create links that are formed intoearrings for example, or that are woven or intertwined to form variouschain designs such as box chain (see FIGS. 13-15), ball chain, Forzatinachain, rope chain and others.

One embodiment of the method starts with FIG. 1 with the provision of afirst material 100 and a second material 200, typically in strip orsheet form, where the first and second materials 100, 200 are preferablyprecious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, etc., and morepreferably where the first and second materials are different preciousmetals having different appearances. For example, one material could beyellow gold and the other material could be silver. In addition, thematerials could be the same metal but have different colors, such aswith gold that is yellow, white or rose in color. It should beappreciated that while it is preferred to use precious metals, othertypes of materials may be used, such as non-precious metals ornon-metals, and the like. It should also be appreciated that thematerials described herein can have any structural composition andconfiguration, size, shape, cross-section, length, width, thickness,hardness, etc., to be determined by the manufacturer and/or the user'sliking and budget.

Returning to FIG. 1, the first and second materials 100, 200 are joinedtogether preferably in a layered relationship, one material on top ofthe other, using a joining medium 150 such as solder or the like, toform a joined material 300 shown in FIG. 2 having opposing surfacesformed from the first and second materials 100, 200. While a weldingprocess using a solder material is shown and described, it will beappreciated that other joining processes may be used as desired. Thejoined material 300 is then processed to form a predetermined dimension.For example, the thickness of the material can be reduced (therebyincreasing the length) by passing the joined material 300 throughrollers 350 or the like to form a processed material 400 as shown, forexample, in FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 illustrates further processing of the processed material 400using cutters 450 or the like, to form separate strips of 500 ofmaterial (FIG. 6) that can be stored on spools 550 or the like for thenext step in the process. In the embodiment shown, it is preferred thatthe strip 500 comprises the first material 100 of one appearance orcolor welded on top of the second material 200 of a different appearanceor color, processed so that both materials 100, 200 are the same width.Of course, while FIGS. 3-5 illustrate certain processing steps and endresults, it will be appreciated that such processing steps may beoptional, or other processing steps may be suggested, depending on thedesired outcome. For example, it may be preferred to facet, bevel orotherwise re-design certain portions of the material 100, 200, 300, 400and/or 500 during one or more stages of processing. The type and extentof processing is dependent on the user and should not be limited inscope by what is shown or not shown in the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates the winding of the material 500 on a support ormandrel 575 to form a spiral 600 having a central axis 625, with thefirst material 100 exposed along an exterior surface 610 of the spiral600 and the second material 200 positioned adjacent the support 575.Heat 580 or other processing may be applied to make the spiral into acontinuous chain of non-separable strand portions. Of course, thepositioning of the first material 100 versus the second material 200along the exterior surface 610 of the spiral 600 is arbitrary, althoughdepending on the final processing to be discussed below, the materialpositioned along the exterior surface 610 of the spiral may be thepredominant material shown in the finished product, which will bediscussed in more detail below, and therefore one appearance from onematerial may be preferred over another appearance from another material.

After the spiral 600 is formed, the spiral 600 is removed from themandrel or support 575 and a third material 700 is introduced into thespiral along the central axis of the spiral 600 as shown in FIG. 7 toform a core of the spiral 600 as shown in FIG. 8A, such that across-section (FIG. 8B) shows an outer surface 610 formed from the firstmaterial 100, a sub-layer formed from the second material 200, and thenthe third material 700 forming the core of the spiral 600. The thirdmaterial 700 is preferably a mesh or other loosely-assembled materialformed from a precious metal that can be the same or different from thefirst or second materials 100, 200. This core material gives theresultant chain a certain amount of thickness and flexibility. Ofcourse, other materials and configurations can be used for the thirdmaterial 700 as desired.

Then, to obtain an “Avolto” product, a pressure operation is performedso that spiral 600 wraps the core section 700 and both the spiral 600and core 700 are compacted one over another as shown in FIG. 9A to forma shaped product 900. More specifically, in one embodiment, the spiral600 and core 700 are placed in a die or a mold 800 having a firstshaping element 810 having a first shaping profile 820 and a secondshaping element 830 having a second shaping profile 840, where theprofiles 820 and 840 can be the same or different as the case may be. InFIG. 9A, the first shaping profile 820 is rounded, while the secondshaping profile 840 is planar to form a shaped profile having a crosssection 910 shown in FIG. 9B. Of course, other cross-sectionalconfigurations are possible such as, but not limited to, theconfigurations shown in FIGS. 9C-9E, and others. An endless variety ofcross-sectional configurations are possible, limited only by theconfigurations of the shaping profiles 820, 840. Furthermore, ornamentalfeatures may be applied to the shaping profiles surfaces to impartornamental designs, embossings or the like to the outer surface of thespiral 600.

The shaped product 900 resulting from the process shown in FIG. 9Acomprises an outer surface that, in accordance with the embodimentdescribed above, has an appearance of the first material 100. To createa “reversible Avolto”, where one side of a chain is one color orappearance and another side is another color or appearance, or in thiscase where one side has the appearance of the first material 100 andanother side has the appearance of the second material 200, a removingoperation 1000 is applied to the outer surface of the shaped product 900to remove the first material 100 from a portion of the outer surface tothereby expose the sub-layer of second material 200. More specifically,the first material or a portion thereof can be removed by polishing,grinding, cutting, burnishing, faceting or the combination of the same.The resultant product 1100 shown in FIG. 11 comprises one side havingthe appearance of the first material 100 and an opposite side having theappearance of the second material 200.

While FIG. 10 shows the removal of material from an entire side, it willbe appreciated that specific style effects can be imparted by removingonly specific portions of outer material to reveal the contrastingappearance from the sub-layer of material as shown for example in thechain 1200 of FIG. 12. Whereas FIG. 10 shows a configuration of apolishing or grinding wheel 1050, FIG. 12 shows a pen-like facetingstructure 1080 for imparting detailed removal of outer surface materialfor revealing detailed design features of contrasting first and secondmaterials.

According to the above mentioned process, and due to a large increase inthe value of gold for example, the reversible Avolto chains may bemanufactured using, for example, gold with silver combination for havingthe most accessible price, as compared with others manufactured onlywith gold, and to create a product that can be worn in a reversiblefashion and with a variety of different clothing combinations.

FIGS. 13-15 show one example or embodiment of making a jewelry chain,and in this case a box chain, using the principles of the presentdisclosure. For ease of explanation, strip 500 of FIG. 13 is similar tostrip 500 from FIG. 5, which strip 500 is typically stored on spools 550(FIG. 5) or the like. Strip 500, which comprises the joinder of firstand second materials 100, 200, is fed into a processing machine 1300that cuts the strip 500 into links 510. The processing machine 1300comprises a strip support 1310 for supporting the strip 500 duringfeeding, and a cutting press 1320 and support 1330 for cutting the strip500 and forming the cut strip into a shaped link 510. The shaped link510 is then automatically delivered to another processing machine 1400(FIG. 14) that comprises a further press 1410 and support 1420 thatforms the links 510 into shaped links 520, such as box-shaped links 520for example, that are then weaved one after the other to form a stringof intertwined links 530. This string of links 530 is then solderedtogether in a belt furnace with solder powder, for example, to arrive ata continuous final chain 1500 (FIG. 15). Thereafter, the final chain1500 may be placed on a support or mandrel 1510 and subject to furtherprocessing where the first material 100 or a portion thereof can beremoved from portions of individual links 520 by a variety of means toexpose the second material 200 as discussed above. While FIG. 15illustrates the engagement of a faceting blade 1520 or the like alongthe outer surface of the chain 1500 for imparting a decorativeappearance to the chain 1500 to form a resultant chain 1530, it will beunderstood that a variety of decorating methods can be used, such as,but not limited to, polishing, grinding, cutting, burnishing, or acombination of the same, or others. The resultant chain 1530, comprisingin the embodiment of FIG. 15 a box chain having faceted links, is thenremoved from the support or mandrel 1510 and stored on a spool (notshown) and/or cut into chain segments (not shown) for sale to customersor the like.

It should be appreciated that the processing machines 1300, 1400, etc.,represent one embodiment of machines typically used to automaticallycreate jewelry chains from chain links that are cut from strips or thelike. Thus, a variety of different types of jewelry chains from avariety of different types of links can be formed using the methodsdescribed herein, such as, for example, box chain, ball chain, Forzatinachain, rope chain, and others. Furthermore, it also possible to formjewelry chains from varieties of different links, or from pre-formedlinks formed by means other than as described herein, as the case maybe. Thus, the links and chains shown and described herein are notintended to be limiting in any fashion.

While the present invention has been described at some length and withsome particularity with respect to the several described embodiments, itis not intended that it should be limited to any such particulars orembodiments or any particular embodiment, but it is to be construed withreferences to the appended claims so as to provide the broadest possibleinterpretation of such claims in view of the prior art and, therefore,to effectively encompass the intended scope of the invention.Furthermore, the foregoing describes the invention in terms ofembodiments foreseen by the inventor for which an enabling descriptionwas available, notwithstanding that insubstantial modifications of theinvention, not presently foreseen, may nonetheless represent equivalentsthereto.

1. A method of forming a jewelry chain comprising: a) providing a firstmaterial and a second material; b) joining the first and secondmaterials in a layered relationship to form a joined material so thatthe first material is on top of or exterior to the second material; c)processing the joined material to a predetermined dimension; d) wrappingthe joined material around a support to form a spiral of joined materialwith the second material being adjacent the support, the spiral having acentral axis; e) removing the spiral from the support and inserting acore of third material along the central axis of the spiral; f) shapingthe spiral around the core to formed a shaped material with an interiorincluding the core and an exterior, the second material being adjacentthe core within the interior; and g) removing a portion of the firstmaterial to expose the second material along the exterior.
 2. The methodof claim 1, the first and second materials each having a differentappearance.
 3. The method of claim 2, at least one of the first andsecond materials comprising a precious metal.
 4. The method of claim 3,each of the first and second materials comprising a different preciousmetal.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first and second materialscomprise different colors.
 6. The method of claim 1, the processingfurther comprising reducing the thickness and extending the length ofthe joined material.
 7. The method of claim 6, the processing furthercomprising simultaneously cutting the joined material into a pluralityof separate strips of joined material.
 8. The method of claim 1, thecore being formed from a precious metal.
 9. The method of claim 1, theshaping further comprising compressing the spiral between a firstshaping element having a first profile and a second shaping elementhaving a second profile.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the firstand second profiles are the same.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein thefirst and second profiles are different.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein at least one profile is rounded and one profile is not rounded.13. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the first material isremoved by polishing, grinding, cutting, burnishing, faceting or acombination of the same.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprisingremoving an entirety of the first material from one side of the shapedmaterial so that the exterior of the shaped material has a first sideformed from the first material and a second side formed from the secondmaterial.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first and second sidesare on opposite sides of the shaped material.
 16. A decorative chaincomprising: a) a first and second material joined together in a layeredrelationship and formed into a spiral having a central axis, an interiorand an exterior; b) an outer surface of the exterior further comprisingthe first material, the second material forming a sub-layer to the firstmaterial; and c) a third material disposed along the central axis of thespiral to form a core of the chain; d) wherein a portion of the firstmaterial is removed from the outer surface to expose a portion of thesub-layer of second material along the outer surface.
 17. The decorativechain of claim 16, the first and second materials each having adifferent appearance.
 18. The decorative chain of claim 16, the chainfurther comprising a first side and a second side, the first sidecomprising the first material and the second side comprising thesub-layer of second material.
 19. The decorative chain of claim 16,wherein the second material is positioned adjacent the core.
 20. Amethod of forming a jewelry chain comprising: a) providing a strip offirst material and a strip of second material; b) joining the first andsecond materials to formed a joined strip comprising the first materialon one side of the joined strip and the second material on an oppositeside of the joined strip; c) creating chain links from the joined stripand joining the chain links together to form a string of links having anexterior; and d) removing a portion of the first material from theexterior of the string of links to expose the second material to form ajewelry chain.
 21. The method of claim 20, further comprising, prior toremoving, wrapping the string of links around a support.
 22. The methodof claim 20, wherein the jewelry chain comprises a box chain, ballchain, Forzatina chain, or rope chain.